Historically, debates have proven to allow a candidate to project an image, said Barbara Perry, a professor and director of presidential studies at UVA’s Miller Center. Perry said that a foreign policy stumble by President Gerald Ford in 1976 cost him credibility in what ended up being a narrow defeat and that Al Gore's sighing and “condescending speaking style” may have been detrimental in a 2000 contest that came down to a few hundred votes in Florida.